Court: Bendigo children sexually abused and filmed by uncle

A Bendigo mum has told her brother that he is "dead" to her family after he sexually abused her two young children.

They were aged 3 and 7 when he filmed their abuse.

The little girls were in their own home when, as their mother told the County Court sitting in Bendigo, they were "failed" by someone who should have known and understood better.

The girls' mum said the plea hearing was like a "funeral" for her family.

"You are dead to us," she told her brother who cannot be named to protect his victims.

The mother said his name was "like Voldemort" and they would never think of him again.

The two sisters were not his only victims.

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He had more than a thousand videos and pictures classified as child abuse material, and while the sisters' abuse appeared among those files, there were others depicting the abuse of other young people.

The court heard that abuse included the rape and restraint of children - and police investigators believed some of those victims were as young as six months old.

The 20-year-old Bendigo uncle, who is in custody, also had images of a 14-year-old girl.

He has pleaded guilty to:

All charges are rolled-up, meaning they relate to more than one incident.

The man was between 17 and 19 at the time of the crimes and has blamed his actions on a combination of breaking up with his girlfriend, being mentally unstable, being "really drunk" and "very stupid" and also while affected by drugs.

The court heard he has denied having a sexual interest in children and has repeatedly told police his offending "was to make sure it wasn't what he liked and that he wasn't a pedophile".

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The videos and photos featured abuse committed in the girls' bedrooms - some while they were asleep, while they were in the shower and while they were playing with toys.

Judge Geoffrey Chettle, who had to view some of the child abuse material to reach his sentencing decision, said some of the crimes were at the higher end of an already very serious crime.

He said they included forced acts on a crying and distressed child.

"Some things once you see them you can't unsee them," Mr Chettle told the court.

The court heard the accused man had visited a Russian website to download child abuse material on 24 separate occasions in addition to finding it online in other locations.

Arguing he did not do this for his own sexual gratification, he said he could relate to the children.

"I'm not the only kid who has been through hell and back," he told police.

He told police he thought there was too much child abuse material on the internet and that it was too easily accessed - despite taking steps himself to find images in a "less trackable" way.

Of some of his crimes he said it made him feel "cringed as f***" and "I just felt so bad - like that's my family".

He also said, "now I feel like a bloody paedophile".

In his sister's victim impact statement she told him, "stop making excuses".

She said her two girls were her "little rays of sunshine" and since the abuse one of her daughters had been removed from her care.

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She said this had "broken my once happy home", because someone could not keep their "filthy hands" off them.

"I never want my babies out of my sight," her statement read.

She explained how she had spent thousands of dollars repurchasing "anything he touched" in her home to reduce the trauma her children might face and swapped rooms with them so the daughter that remained in her care was not as scared.

"You've lost the respect of everyone you've ever met," the young mum told the man.

Mr Chettle said he accepted the man's early plea of guilty but said he thought the accused had "minimised things and didn't tell the truth to the police when he was interviewed".

The court acknowledged he had a "very chaotic", "dysfunctional" and "extremely traumatic" childhood.

He was removed at age six into state care and never returned to live with his mother, who the court heard had used him as a "drug mule".

The court heard he was separated from his siblings with little contact, while his defence team also disclosed that he said he had been sexually abused in care.

The court heard he had, as a child, been a witness to "violence", "torture" and "pornography".

Prior to being taken into custody he was receiving NDIS support.

He also said at the time of his crimes he was using marijuana and alcohol.

Mr Chettle questioned how that explained the abuse of the children "almost on a daily basis".

"People who use cannabis don't (all) go out and sexually penetrate three year olds," he said.

While the court heard psychological assessments were hesitant to diagnose young offenders as paedophiles, Chettle said it was "self evident" in this case.

"Three years old for goodness sake, he has got a deviant sexual interest in children," he said.

The man had been in custody since September 2022 and will face sentencing later in November.

The Bugmy principal - which takes into consideration childhood deprivation - will be a consideration in this case.

Mr Chettle summarised this idea as it being "no surprise a person ends up where they do based on where they started".

The court heard the man had recognised the impact on his victims would be "devastating".

His defence team said he needed "wrap-around, multifaceted therapy".

He will be a registered sex offender for life.

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